Activities for engaging online learning

Activities for engaging online learning

Š Velg Training Version 1.0 October 2014

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Disclaimer Velg Training has used its best endeavours to ensure that this document is correct and current at the time of publication, but does not give any warranty nor accept any liability in relation to the contents. If any law prohibits the exclusion of such liability, Velg Training limits its liability to the extent permitted by law.

Acknowledgements In creating these materials, Velg Training would like to recognise the following creative people as contributors to the development of this resource.

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Roger Courville 1080 Group, LLC roger@1080group.com

Credits Extracts from, or references to, the following publications have been used to develop this resource tool.

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The Virtual Presenter

Enquiries The Copyright Act 1968 (Commonwealth) protects this material. Requests and enquiries concerning this material should be directed in writing to: Velg Training Chief Executive Officer 1/52 Jeffcott Street, Wavell Heights Q 4012  Velg Training – Webinar Presenter Guide - Version 1.0 October 2014

Table of Contents Disclaimer .................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... 2 Credits ......................................................................................................................... 2 Enquiries ...................................................................................................................... 2 Ready to use activities for engaging online learning ......................................................... 5 Designing for interactivity .............................................................................................. 5 Examples of interactivity ................................................................................................ 6 Word cloud response ................................................................................................. 7 Bingo ........................................................................................................................ 7 Polling for points........................................................................................................ 8 Finish First ................................................................................................................ 8 Quote Quibble ........................................................................................................... 8 Red light, yellow light, green light ............................................................................... 9 Determine what you are designing for ........................................................................10 Interact from the start ..............................................................................................10 First email ................................................................................................................11 Reminder email ........................................................................................................11 Upon login ...............................................................................................................11 Some ideas of welcoming activities ................................................................................12 Start of live webinar ..................................................................................................12 Select activities for maximum involvement ..................................................................13 Create materials for attendees ...................................................................................14 Use each session as a design review ..........................................................................14 Start in “analogue” ...................................................................................................15 Turn on the ‘raise your hand’ feature..........................................................................15 Use a poll to gather quantitative responses .................................................................15 Use a font size that will be readable for all ..................................................................15

Design slides for engagement; put excess detail in handouts ........................................15 Do not be afraid to use more slides ............................................................................15 Discuss the logistics of managing text-based and audio Q&A ........................................15

Ready to use activities for engaging online learning Virtual training is more than just a straightforward lecture or presentation – it is a highly interactive, live online instructor led class. Virtual training has defined learning objectives, with participants who are connected worldwide. It is time to move from plain presentations to engaging online learning!

Imagine that in one hour from now you have a live, online session on your calendar and are planning to participate from your current location. Look around you…what can you see?

How many potential distractions can you identify? What else is likely to steal your attention from the upcoming session? You are probably like most people; a workspace filled with potential distractions that are going to keep you from actively participating in your virtual session.

This will be the same with your online training participants. While online training has many advantages – including the convenience of no travel – it does not come without its disadvantages. As a presenter of virtual training, you need to be more interesting than all the potential distractions in your learners’ workplace. Overcoming this disadvantage will be the most difficult part of your online training. Fortunately, you are able to keep participants engaged throughout the entire session by using a wide range of tools available within the platform plus a touch of creativity.

Designing for interactivity Designing an interactive online training session is a simple three-step process. You should firstly start with the outcome that your participants need to achieve. By determining this, you will ensure that your activity drives toward the overall learning outcome.

Secondly you need to consider the platform tools that can help you achieve this outcome. A list of common tools and an example of their use can be found below. It is important to remember that there are many ways that you can accomplish an outcome, but how you get there may not be an important as actually getting there. In other words, asking a question and receiving participants responses can be done in through the chat window, asking a poll question and by a show of raised hands. It is important that you consider all the available tool options first, and then narrow down your choice.

Tool

Sample use Ask questions to invite the participants to

Poll

respond.

Annotation

Highlight important words and draw on the screen.

Chat

Encourage dialogue between participants.

Raise your hand

Ask yes/no or agree/disagree questions.

Screen sharing Material distribution Tests Audio

Share slides, software programs or websites with participants.

Offer handouts and other paper-based resources.

Check for knowledge transfer.

Allow verbal responses from participants and encourage open dialogue.

The third step is wear creativity comes into play – what you do with the platform tools and how you use them can be limitless! Each tool has its own individual function and purpose, but with your creative juices flowing, you are able to use the tools to both interact with and engage your participants. The design process is a combination of both art and science.

GoToWebinar brings the tools, which are made to function in a certain way; this is the science. The art is you bringing the design using your creativity. Together these pieces combine to create an interactive exercise.

In summary, the activity design process is: 1. Start with the outcome 2. Select the best platform tool 3. Shape the activity using your creativity

Examples of interactivity Several examples of ‘ready to use’ activities that follow the design can be found below. You are able to use these activities by modifying and adapting them for your own use. You can also use these activities as a springboard to help spark your own creative side.

Word cloud response This purpose of this activity is to build rapport and also to raise awareness of the chosen topic. It is recommended that this activity starts before the session start time. You could send each participant a quick email asking them about your chosen topic. This will set the stage for engagement by inviting the attendees to get involved.

Once you have received answers back from attendees, combine them all into a word cloud.

What is key from this activity is that you have captured the exact words your learners have provided you with.

Here is an example Velg Training used for the VET Summit.

During your online session, at an appropriate time, you should share your word cloud responses with your attendees asking them to point out their own answers and seeing if they can find other answers that also resonate with them.

Bingo Do you think your topic is dry and boring? Spice it up with bingo!! In order to play this interactive activity, create a small handout by putting topically relevant catchwords or statements into a bingo grid. Ensure that you are putting in catchwords or statements which will be used throughout your online session.

You are able to share your Bingo card with all attendees via the ‘materials’ panel on their control panel. Ask them to either print a copy prior to the live session or have it open on their screens. Let your attendees know that they need to mark off the boxes as they hear it being said. Once all the catchwords and statements have been said, they should announce ‘BINGO’ via the chat window.

You could choose to give away a small prize or encourage other participants to applaud the win. It is highly likely that you will have more than one person declaring ‘BINGO’ in the chat window; the more participants are listening to your live session, the better.

Polling for points Competitions can be a fun and easy way to get attendees engaged. Create a series of polling questions related to you webinar topic. Each question should be challenging enough that it requires some thought. If you are planning to ask the polling questions one after another than Velg Training recommends doing no more than 4. However, if you are looking at spreading them out over the course of your webinar it is okay to have a couple more.

Ensure that you let all attendees know that each polling question will be assigned a point value. This activity works based on an honour system, as attendees will be keeping track of their own points. After the last polling question, you should stop and ask attendees to type their total points into the chat window to see who won.

Finish First If your session requires attendee’s to fill in a workbook or document at certain times throughout the duration of the webinar, you are able to turn this into an interactive activity.

It is extremely common for attendee’s to need a different amount of time to work on each section. While you might allow 3 minutes for all attendee’s to work on the document, not everyone will need this much time. Encourage your attendees to ‘raise their hand’ upon finishing. Then, whichever comes first – all hands raised or allocated time is up – debrief and move onto the next session.

Quote Quibble You are able spark interest on any subject matter by posting an interesting quote or a surprising statistic and ask attendee’s for their thoughts and reactions. This is a quick and

easy way to implement interactivity as it gets the attention of the attendee’s by requiring a response.

If you are providing attendee’s with a statement you can ask them to agree or disagree by raising their virtual hand and typing their reasoning in the chat window. If you are providing a statistic, you could ask the attendee’s to guess the number in the chat window. A good way to use this interactive activity is to have the quote or statistic open before the session starts or near the beginning as it can evoke immediate reaction and participation, setting the scene for a highly interactive webinar.

Red light, yellow light, green light The ultimate goal of your training is to have attendees implement the new lessons they have learnt immediately. This activity will help participants commit to their action plan and be excited about implementing it. To set up the exercise, divide one slide into three sections red, yellow and green – you can do this by using images or just three plain labels. You should allow enough space in between each section so that participants are able to type a short phrase into each section.

When you show your slide on screen, let your attendees know what each label means. E.g.

Red = What will stop you from implementing your action plan?

Yellow = Who’s approval or buy-in do you need?

Green = What can you do immediately to get started?

Invite your attendees to use the annotation tool to write their responses on-screen. By allowing your attendees to type on screen it helps increase their commitment to the action, helps them see obstacles and adds a layer of accountability to their plan.

Now you have seen some examples of some interactive activities, it is time to create your own! Determine your purpose, select your tool and get creative!!

Techniques to design interactive online training

Some people can think that virtual training can be boring and not an engaging way to learn.

Many people have probably attended lecture style webinar sessions with minimal interaction.

Velg Training believes that webinars can be an effective way to learn as long as you have an interactive approach. You need a design that engages attendees, creates a comfortable space for learning and aides in helping them apply the new skill. A good online webinar is more than just posting slides online and clicking through them while you talk – it is about creating a high-quality learning experience.

Here are some techniques that will help you run an effective and interactive virtual session.

Determine what you are designing for It can be tempting to open up a blank PowerPoint presentation and begin writing the presentation, or taking a presentation you have designed for a face-to-face session. The first step in designing an interactive online webinar is to determine exactly what you are designing the session for. Think about what your overarching goal is, what you are trying to accomplish, what topics you are trying to convey and what information should be shared.

Once you determine your goal and type of session you are able to design appropriately.

You might think that you are designing a webinar when actually you are designing a presentation with one-way communication. It is important that you break through this barrier by designing sessions that build on your established framework and desired outcome – an interactive webinar.

Interact from the start An interactive webinar needs to be engaging from the moment your attendees register.

Expectations should be set from the beginning that it is going to be a highly interactive session. The following are times when participants can be engaged: •

The first email they receive upon registering their seat

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Every reminder email that is sent

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Upon logging onto the webinar

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At the beginning of the class

First email You are able to start creating interactivity from the first message your attendees receive about the webinar. The email received upon registering their seat for the live webinar session could invite them to do some of the following: •

Print a handout with a pre-class exercise that will be referred to during the webinar

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Respond to a topic related question bringing their answers with them to the session

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Email questions that have prior to the live session.

When sending pre-webinar requirements, it is important to keep in mind the likelihood of the attendees actually participating in the request. People are more likely to complete activities if any of the following conditions are true: •

Topically relevant activity that is fairly easy to complete

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Topic that attendees are motivated to learn about

Even if none of the above situations are true, you are still able to set the stage for interaction and encourage the completion by keeping the activity ‘short and sweet’ – relevant to the topic and quick for attendees to complete.

Reminder email Encouragement to interact should continue through the reminder emailed that attendees receive. These reminder emails can not only include information about logging onto the live webinar but also information that lets the participants know that the session will be highly interactive.

Some examples can include giving attendees a heads-up that need to be prepared to be hands-on during the session and that you will be expecting them to respond to you. You should remind attendees to close out of their emails and other programs at the start of the webinar so that you have their full attention. By communicating your expectations prior to the session, attendees will not be blindsided when they are expected to be highly involved in the webinar.

Upon login Another opportunity to interact is from the moment attendees begin logging into the live session. Consider this – when attendees log in to the live session they see a message that says ‘Welcome, this session will begin at 11:00am AEST’. Attendees are then forced to sit and wait with nothing to do, meaning they will most likely check their emails and continue

working and not check back in right away. This leads to many attendees missing the first few minutes of the webinar. At best some attendees will sit staring at the screen waiting for the session to begin. None of these responses are setting the tone for an interactive webinar.

An alternative would be that all attendees are engaging in discussion or an activity straight away. Attendees should be greeted with a warm welcome from both Velg Training and you as the presenter. You could ask attendees to respond to some quick questions or share an activity on the screen. At Velg Training we tend to use Wuzzles but feel free to let us know if there is something different you would like to do. This scenario creates an interactive environment that involves participants immediately.

Some ideas of welcoming activities can include: •

Ask attendees to post their responses to a thought-provoking quote

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Invite attendees to introduce themselves to one another with an ice breaker question

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Encourage attendees to share their ‘burning’ questions

•

Invite attendees to participate in some brain teasers

All of the above activities and more can enhance the learning are they are relevant to your topic. Your welcoming activity can reference your pre-webinar activity, give preview to the topic and help attendees learn how to use the webinar platform tools. Welcoming activities should not be a teaching topic or learning point as you do not want to penalise those who do not join early enough to participate.

Start of live webinar You should begin with an interactive exercise at the beginning or your live webinar. Velg Training is required to run over some housekeeping tasks before the commencement of your session. It is recommended that attendees interact within the first 3-4 minutes, or you will have lost the opportunity to set the stage for an interactive webinar.

Another way to keep your attendees engaged in to be on webcam. This will personalise the training for the audience as they are able to put a face to the voice. A video is a nice way to engage attendees in more than just the webinar PowerPoint slides. From here you should move into your opening activity – this will depend heavily on how many attendees you have for your live webinar. You could encourage all attendees to answer some questions

regarding the webinar topic and what they are expecting from the session. Whatever the activity you choose you need to get every participant involved.

Select activities for maximum involvement It is important to keep momentum going once you have set the stage for interaction. It is not about interaction for the sake of interaction, it is about engaging attendees in their own learning. Confucius’ proverb “What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand” still applies to today’s training. When designing your webinar you should aim to engage attendees every 4 minutes, this high frequency keeps attendees attention and keeps them focused on the topic.

One of the biggest advantages to using a virtual classroom is the plethora of tools available to help you in getting attendees involved in their learning. You are able to use the platform tools described earlier to engage attendees. Think about the different ways attendees can use the platform tools available to them. If you are using handouts you can have attendees ‘raise their hand’ once they have completed the activity. When asking verbal questions you should encourage all attendees to type their responses and ideas into the chat window. If doing a survey you should turn them into poll questions so you are able to see the percentage of attendee’s answers and to get them thinking.

Here is a list of ways that you can use the common platform tools to engage attendees: Tool

Sample use

Poll

Ask challenging questions

Chat

Encourage dialogue

Raise your hand

Ask yes/no or agree/disagree questions.

Screen sharing Material distribution Tests Audio

Share slides, software programs or websites with participants.

Offer handouts and other paper-based resources.

Check for knowledge transfer.

Allow verbal responses from participants and encourage open dialogue.

Create materials for attendees You should create materials which will set attendees up for success. Attendees can greatly benefit from having reference material relating to the training topic. Materials can either be printed handouts that are emailed to all attendees ahead of time, or via the materials pane on your control panel. Keep in mind that attendees resources should not just be a copy of the PowerPoint slides. Create a useful handout that can be a job aid back in the workplace, provide resources, tips, techniques, content and information that attendees will actually be able to use on the job.

Use each session as a design review When designing your webinar, ensure that you run over the session before you present it to review the timing, interactivity and learning outcomes. Use each live session as an opportunity to collect feedback from attendees and incorporate these suggestions and improvements into future webinars.

After each session look for feedback on: •

Activity choices: did the activities help lead to the desired learning outcomes?

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Activity flow: how well do the activities flow from one to the next?

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Activity transitions: are the transitions between activities smooth and seamless?

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Visual aids: do the visual aids appropriately match the course content?

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Timing: how does the actual timing compare to the expected timing? What activities need more or less time?

By using your live webinars as a design review you are able to consistently monitor attendee interactivity levels and their engagement. Continuous improvement will lead to a better webinar.

Encourage more than questions in the questions pane The chat pane is commonly used for submitting questions to be answered either at the end or during the live webinar session. The chat pane can you a powerful means of soliciting comments and feedback. This pane can be used for creating rapport or it can be more formal for the sake of discussion.

Start in “analogue” What would you do in-person for this audience? Would you ask them for a show of hands?

Would you ask for any questions? Would you ask them to look at an example of something?

These types of questions will give you the best ideas on what to replicate and plan for your webinar.

Turn on the ‘raise your hand’ feature Give attendees the opportunity to ask questions at designated times during your live webinar by using the raise your hand feature. Velg Training are able to unmute individuals for live Q&A and mute them again once the interaction has been completed.

Use a poll to gather quantitative responses Polls are multiple choice and allow up to five responses. You are able to force all attendees to select only a single answer. Apart from being interactive polls also capture and display quantitative information that is more accurate than a face-to-face presentation. Your polls will give you insight into your attendees.

Use a font size that will be readable for all It is important to remember that GoToWebinar is supported by mobile devices so you need to choose a font size that will be easy to read on both larger and smaller screens and resolutions.

Design slides for engagement; put excess detail in handouts Webinar attendees are expecting your presentation to me more like television by engaging them with more graphics-based slides.

Do not be afraid to use more slides It has been scientifically proven that change gets more attention. Instead of speaking to the one slide for five minutes, consider covering the same content over a variety of slides. Your slides may make up a big part of your webinar so ensure you are being strategic with them.

Discuss the logistics of managing text-based and audio Q&A If you are planning to unmute attendees to ask questions use should also consider how you are going to get them to participate in text-based Q&A. You should also be made aware of which Velg Training staff member will be unmuting and muting both yourself and the

attendee for the audio based questions. At the beginning of each live webinar and during your test webinar a Velg Training staff member will inform you on how the chat will be handled and how audio questions will be taken.

Classroom

GoToTraining •

Launch a poll and share results

•

Share a blank page, maze or word search and give attendees drawing tool

Icebreakers •

Create a “meet and greet” using the chat panel

Lecture

Discussions

Skills application

Interaction

Testing Knowledge

•

Launch a test

•

Live demos

•

Guest speaker

•

PowerPoint

•

Websites

•

Applications

•

Annotation

•

Verbal (unmute attendees)

•

Chat

•

Raise your hand

•

Exercises (add to materials)

•

Chat

•

Timer

•

Test

•

Multiple sessions

•

Raise your hand

•

Polls

•

Chat

•

Verbal (unmute attendees)

•

Give keyboard and mouse controls

•

Pass desktop sharing to attendees

•

Tests

•

Annotation

•

Polls

•

Tests

•

Q&A through chat window